the golden horde and the black sea 245
own holdings in asia Minor, but at the same time he was exposing other
Byzantine possessions, more important ones, on the Balkan peninsula.
on the Volga, these two affronts from the emperor (the interference
with diplomatic contact between Sarai and cairo, and the imprisonment
of ‛Izz al-Dīn) were considered casus belli. to restore the situation, Berke
ordered a great expedition against Byzantium, where Bulgarian troops
and Seljuks from the Dobruja took part alongside tartars.408
Where the Mamluk chroniclers consider that ‛Izz al-Dīn’s liberation
was a secondary objective of the campaign, Byzantine accounts see it as
the main purpose, and even consider the Seljuk ex-sultan to have been
its instigator.
pachymeres writes that after waiting in vain to be restored to his throne,
‛Izz al-Dīn realised that his hopes were unfounded when he learned of
Michael VIII’s pact with hülegü. he thus took the first opportunity to send
a faithful messenger to a powerful kinsman to the North of the Black Sea,
asking for help. he asked his relative to march against Byzantium with
the tartars and the Bulgarians of tsar constantin tikh, since although the
emperor pretended to be their friend he was in fact an enemy.409 they
responded to his call sometime between summer 1264 and the following
winter.410 after a hard-fought siege at enos, ‛Izz al-Dīn was freed, after
which the invading troops spread out and raided all the way to the walls
of constantinople. the tartars took a great number of slaves and stolen
cattle with them as they withdrew.411
Byzantine and Seljukid sources contain no reference at all to the egyp-
tian ambassador fāris al-Dīn aqūsh al-Mas‛ūdī’s role as mediator between
the emperor and the commander of the invading forces: Mamluk sources
though show him playing a crucial part in smoothing over the Byzantine-
tartar conflict and resolving the matter of ‛Izz al-Dīn.
During 1265 Michael VIII sent two embassies seeking assistance from
Baybars.412 the sultan sent the response he had hoped for: “‘If you have
detained my envoys because your friendship with king Berke has been
408 Ibid., pp. 229–233; cf. chapman, Michel Paléologue, p. 75, Ibn Bībī/Duda, pp. 282–285,
ostrogorsky, Geschichte, p. 379, Geanakoplos, Emperor, pp. 181–182, canard, “un traité,”
p. 215, papacostea, “crise,” p. 348.
409 pachymeres/Bekker , I, p. 330 (erroneously naming abaqa instead of hülegü).
410 Dölger, Regesten, III, p. 47, suggests summer, but the Seljuk chroniclers mention the
Danube as having frozen over so that the tartar cavalry could ride across (Decei, “prob-
lema,” p. 185).
411 pachymeres/Bekker, I, p. 233, Gregoras/Schopen, I, p. 101.
412 canard, “un traité,” p. 218.